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  “Okay Mikey, I’ll come to the meet but it’s just you and me.”

  Mikey nodded. “Ten thirty tomorrow morning okay?”

  “I’ll be there.” With that he got to his feet, then hesitated. “I won’t mind if you’re there too,” he said, winking down at Jules before strolling out of the café.

  They watched him go, Jules’s eyes fixed on his firm backside. “What?” she said when she saw Mikey frowning at her.

  “What is it about you? I’ve never seen Mark Cameron smile before. Why do you have this effect on men?”

  “Wish I knew,” she replied with a cocky shrug. “If I could bottle it I’d make a fortune.”

  “I want you to be at that meeting tomorrow. You might convince Mark to join us.”

  “I’ll do my best. Right, what now?” she said, all eagerness. That meeting with Mark had done her the power of good, put her back in the right frame of mind and she felt much calmer.

  “Now I want to have a talk with you,” said Mikey, green eyes sharp.

  Jules felt the jitters start to return so she took a sip of coffee to disguise her nerves. “What about?”

  “The Parker’s house. You still own it.”

  “Yeah, so?” she said, trying to sound carefree and failing.

  “Why, if it’s so full of bad memories?”

  “Because the market’s on its arse, thanks to this retarded government. I’ll sell when it picks up again.”

  “That makes sense but my problem is you’ve had the house for years. Why didn’t you sell sooner, before the market went tits up?”

  “It needing doing up after the fire.”

  “You had fourteen years to do that.”

  “There was a lot to do.”

  Mikey’s eyes narrowed. “What are you hiding in there?”

  “Nothing,” she replied a bit too quickly, her left knee starting to jiggle.

  “What happened to Leighton Parker?”

  “I am not discussing him.”

  “Jules…”

  “No,” she snapped savagely, jabbing a finger in his face. “I appreciate what you’ve done for me but since I’ve been back in Manchester I’ve jumped through hoops for you. I’ve moved house, started seeing a psychiatrist, even disposed of three of my friends,” she said, dropping her voice to a vicious hiss so no one could hear. “When will it be enough?”

  “When I can be sure you’re not keeping anything from me and you are.”

  “Why shouldn’t I have my secrets? I bet you have yours and Leighton Parker’s fuck all to do with you.”

  “Interesting.”

  “What is?” she barked.

  “That you use the present tense and not the past when talking about Leighton.”

  “You’re bloody delusional,” she said, getting up and storming out.

  He hurried after her. “Jules, hold on.”

  She sighed and halted by his car, the annoyance in her grey eyes making her look so much like Ryan it unsettled him.

  “I’m sorry, okay?” he said. “What you went through at the hands of the Parkers was so traumatic. We’ve only just met and I’ve no right to keep hassling you about it. But I do hope that one day you’ll trust me enough to tell me.”

  Jules gave a non-committal shrug, wrapping her arms around herself, the jitters returning.

  “Get in,” he sighed, indicating the car.

  She threw herself into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut.

  “Steady,” he said. “This motor’s new.”

  A glower was her response.

  “I want to open a tattoo parlour,” she suddenly blurted out as he started the engine.

  “Where did that come from?”

  “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Now things are settling down it seems the right time,” she replied, careful to keep her eyes straight ahead, refusing to look at him.

  “Fine by me. It’s a good idea, something to focus your attention on. Will you be doing the tattoos?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you know how?”

  “Course I do,” she sniffed. “You know the tiger on Jax’s back? That was me.”

  “Then you’re very talented.”

  “I’ll be giving discount for family members,” she said with a small smile.

  He was encouraged by her light-hearted tone. Maybe she was forgiving him for prying. “I don’t know if a tattoo’s really me.”

  “I’d say it was. You’d look great with a nice tribal band round one of your muscular arms. Sorry,” she added when he shot her a disapproving look. “Only playing.”

  “What have we said about inappropriate remarks?”

  “Can’t I have any fun now?”

  “Not when you’re working. Have you found any premises for your studio?”

  “I have actually. Right next door to your boxing gym.”

  He sighed inwardly. “You mean the hairdressers that shut down?”

  “Yeah. It’s pretty ideal really. It’s got everything I need already in place and there’ll be all those butch men next door wanting to look even more butch.”

  “Just as long as you’re not in the gym flirting and distracting people. You stay on your side of the fence. Got it?”

  “Got it,” she smiled, looking and feeling happier.

  “It’ll do you good to have something of your own, as long as the business is entirely legitimate. No dealing, no dodgy deals. Nothing.”

  “Please Mikey, I’m not a fucking idiot.”

  No, he thought, she was far from stupid and that was what scared him.

  CHAPTER 4

  “So what do you think?” said Jared.

  Katia nodded approvingly. They were in an ex-B&B, twelve rooms, all designed for discretion and privacy. The building had fallen into Jared’s hands when the owner threw himself off a motorway bridge. Whether that was with or without assistance Katia didn’t know or care. All she could focus on was the fact that she was moving onto bigger and better things.

  “I like it very much, but it’s going to need some work.”

  “The decorator’s already been hired. I’ll leave all that in your hands, I’m sure you have good taste.”

  “I do,” she said proudly. “It will be beautiful and worthy of its clientele.” She gave him a sly, sideways glance. “We will have better clientele?”

  “I’ve already got some of my contacts on standby. They can’t wait to test the goods.”

  “The new women will arrive in two days,” she said. “Four of them. They will be healthier and more attractive than what we have now.”

  “Except Irina. Remember, she goes with no man but me,” said Jared firmly.

  “I haven’t forgotten. She is yours.”

  He relaxed. “Good.”

  Jared seemed to be in a good mood so Katia decided now might be a good time. “Have you thought over my proposal to take down the Laws?”

  His brow furrowed. “I have and I still can’t see what’s in it for me.”

  Katia inhaled sharply. Was this man as spineless as his father, who had actually been afraid of Ryan and Rachel? “They are very close to the Maguires. If you hurt them they will be focused so much on finding who did it that they won’t be watching their businesses, leaving you free to step in.”

  “They’ll be hunting who did it and they’ll come straight here. I don’t want to fight them.”

  Katia had to swallow hard to force down her disgust at his weakness. “Mikey is just a boy…”

  “Mikey Maguire is a powerful leader. Why can’t you get that through your fucking thick skull you daft bitch?” he bellowed in her face.

  There was a moment’s silence as Katia wiped his spittle off her face. “I have met him, seen him up close. He is weak and with a push he’ll fall.”

  “You’re just trying to get me to do your dirty work for you and I don’t like being used. I’m doing you this favour because you helped me get rid of my useless fucking ponce of a dad once and for all, but d
on’t think I won’t bury you too if you piss me off.”

  Katia held her head high. She had to do this to protect her twin babies, Alex and Daniel. “I am trying to help you Jared, just like you are helping me. Alex told me everything about his businesses. I know who his contacts were, how he ran things, businesses Mikey is now running, including his deal with The McVay’s.”

  Jared had gone quiet and was listening intently.

  “I can tell you everything and you can use it against them. The Maguires still have many enemies. They have been top for too long and it’s time they fell.” When he gazed off into the distance, thinking things through, she whispered in his ear like the devil on his shoulder, “go on, give them a push.”

  “You said you know about their deal with the McVay’s? Couriers, routes, that sort of thing?”

  She nodded. “Alex was training me to be his second. He didn’t trust anyone else after his family turned against him, after everything he’d done for them, they were so ungrateful. Mikey is greedy and he took what was Alex’s. He won’t be able to hold onto it for long.”

  “Alright Katia, I’ll do you a deal. If you tell me everything you know I’ll do the Laws for you.”

  Katia’s heart lifted. Finally she was going to get the revenge that burned her from the inside out, that had her waking in the middle of the night drenched in sweat, heart pounding, wanting to rip the room apart with grief. She hadn’t thought it was possible to miss anyone as much as she missed Alex. “Thank you.”

  “But your gen had better prove to be solid.”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t know what that means.” Her English had come along in leaps and bounds but she found some of the colourful dialect and the differences in accents confusing. She’d just got used to Mancunian but now she had to get used to Essex, which she was finding even more baffling. Even though they were cities supposedly in the same country for her they may as well have been on opposite sides of the world.

  “I mean what you tell me had better be accurate or God help you,” explained Jared.

  “It will be.”

  Jared’s smile was cunning. If he could ruin the deal the Maguires had with Glasgow then Toni McVay would lose faith in them, she’d want to set up another distribution line and he could arrange that for her, he had contacts in the north, he could use them to run her drugs right down here to the south, cutting a line straight through the fucking country. It would be even bigger than what the Maguires had and would put his family firmly on the map.

  Jared didn’t trust Katia as far as he could throw her, she was a cunning bitch, but it was a point of pride to him to show his gratitude to those who helped him out so, if her information was accurate, he’d kill her enemies and set her up for life.

  “Ryan, what can I do for you?” said Ashley when he was shown into his office.

  “I’ve brought the contact details for the previous owners of our house,” replied Ryan, holding out a piece of paper.

  “It’s very good of you to bring them in personally, you could just have sent me an e-mail,” said Ashley, accepting the piece of paper he held out, hoping he didn’t look as disappointed as he felt that Rachel hadn’t brought them instead. It occurred to him that Ryan was aware of his little crush on her and that was why he was here instead. The thought made him nervous, Ryan Law was not someone he wanted to get on the wrong side of. He knew all about Ryan and Rachel’s pasts, thanks to a call he’d put in to a colleague in Manchester and, in Rachel’s case anyway, it excited him a little, but he’d been careful to keep that to himself.

  “I want to talk to you,” said Ryan, taking the chair before his desk without waiting to be asked.

  Ashley swallowed nervously but he was safe at work, Ryan wouldn’t touch him when they were surrounded by police officers. “How can I help?” he said.

  “Do you think the body discovered under our annex is anything to do with this serial killer?”

  Ashley blinked at him. “What serial killer?”

  “The one that’s supposed to be going around snatching men.”

  Ashley gave him a patronising smile, as though he was indulging a child. “Now we’ve all heard these rumours Ryan but there’s absolutely no evidence that we do have a serial killer.”

  “Then why do you think these men have disappeared?”

  “People disappear all the time. Every year two hundred thousand people in the UK go on the missing list. It’s a frightening statistic but it stands to reason that some of them will be from this area.”

  “But these men were all around the same age, professional, fit, healthy. Don’t you think that’s a strange coincidence?”

  Ashley’s blue eyes were cold. “I’m not a complete idiot Ryan, I did look into these disappearances. Two of the men were known to have suffered depression in the past. There are plenty of cliffs and isolated spots around here…”

  “You think they killed themselves?”

  “It’s a possibility.”

  “Did they take any of their things with them? Anything to indicate they’d done a runner?”

  “No but a lot of missing people don’t. Sometimes they just get into their cars or hitch a lift with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Anyway, no bodies have ever turned up.”

  “Until now.”

  “We’ve no evidence that body is anything to do with a serial killer.”

  “You will have when they’re identified. Have you managed to do that yet?”

  “I’m not at liberty to share that information with you Ryan. Why are you so interested anyway?”

  “Why am I interested?” he said incredulously. “That body was found on my property and I want the matter put to rest as soon as possible.”

  “And we’re working on it, I can’t say any more than that. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a lot to do,” he said, turning his attention back to his computer.

  “I bet you’d have been more open if I was Rachel,” said Ryan on his way to the door.

  “Excuse me?” frowned Ashley.

  Ryan stopped and turned, one eyebrow raised. “I do believe you heard me perfectly clearly.” He stared at Ashley until he lowered his gaze.

  Ryan stalked out of the station, furious at having been spoken to as though he was a complete idiot. Plus he was surrounded by police officers, which didn’t help his mood, all of them moving out of his way as he strode towards the exit. Ashley was a fool if he couldn’t see what was staring him in the face, so he decided to visit someone with brains.

  He jumped into his Range Rover and drove straight to Battler and Bruiser’s office in the town of Torquay.

  “Are you alright? You look pissed off,” said Battler, getting to his feet to greet him.

  “No. I’ve just been to the police station,” he said distastefully. “It’s not what you think,” he added when Battler gave him a look that said, what have you done. “I was trying to find out if they’re taking the serial killer angle seriously on that body they found under our annex.”

  “And are they?”

  “Course not, the morons. How do they think that body got there? Do they think he just decided to go for a lie down?”

  “Me and Bruiser agree with you, which is why he went out to chase up a couple of leads,” said Battler, indicating his brother’s empty chair, but they were such a tight unit they were still a single entity even when one was absent.

  “I’m curious about Bruiser. I’ve never talked to either of you without the other before so I don’t know, does he talk to people when you’re not there to do the talking for him?”

  The concept seemed to amuse Battler. “I can see where you’re coming from but yes, he does, although he uses as few words as he can get away with. If he didn’t I wouldn’t let him out on his own. But I will let you in on a little secret. Daina told me he quotes romantic poetry to her.”

  “Poetry, Bruiser?” said Ryan with a raised eyebrow.

  “I know. Fucking gay, isn’t it?”

  “I like poetry.”
/>
  “Oh, do you?” Battler cleared his throat. “So you think the body in your back yard was a victim of this serial killer?”

  “You really believe there is one active in the area?”

  “It’s the only thing that explains everything we’ve found.”

  “And what is that?”

  “Sit down and I’ll show you.”

  Ryan took the chair on the opposite side of Battler’s desk, which was a lot more expensive and impressive than Ashley’s. He watched as Battler took a buff folder out of a drawer and opened it up. “Eight victims. The first - and youngest - victim disappeared seven years ago. George Romer. Nineteen years old. These are the other seven.” As he spoke Battler laid a photo of each man on the desk for Ryan to examine. “See the resemblance?”

  “I do,” replied Ryan. All men were well-built and over average height. Although two were blond and the rest were dark and their eye colours varied there was still something similar about them, something healthy and capable and confident. They all looked like they worked out a lot too.

  “They were all from the immediate area - two were from Tavistock, one was from Newton Abbot…”

  Ryan shifted uneasily. That was where he lived.

  “…One from Ivybridge, one from Totnes, two from Exeter and one from Moretonhampstead. They were all quite athletic, into various sports, but not the same sports. The eldest man was forty one when he disappeared, so they’re all relatively young. Beyond that there’s nothing connecting them. The two from Tavistock knew each other because they’d grown up in the same place but they weren’t close friends or anything. The only other thing they all have in common is that they disappeared without a trace and have never been seen since.”

  Ryan stared at the gallery of happy, healthy faces and wondered if one of those poor bastards had ended up buried in concrete on his land. He ran a hand thoughtfully across his jaw, hearing the stubble rasp against his skin. He hadn’t had a shave for a few days with everything that had been going on lately. Lexie and Jules - his two half-sisters - had come into his life and caused havoc. He’d decided to grow it, it was time for a change.